Here there be a dragon
by Zerodone
Summary: Dragon live among us. They eat, drive, work, take part in sports events, play video games, while all the time being in disguise with their magic. Due to a little accident, one young dragon finds herself in Berseria, a game she only played past the Hellawees ark.
1. Chapter 1

Storm clouds covered the skies, making the world a dark place. Neither the light of the stars or the moon were able to pierce through the thick layer of clouds. Wind blasted at incredible speed over the ocean, causing the sea beneath the sky to be rough, with huge waves crashing down on several occasions. The only real source illumination was the occasional lightning that cracked between the clouds or on occasion hit the restless ocean. After the flash, of course, followed the thunder, either with a delay or it came with the lightning. If that was the case, it generally meant for Cera to get the hell away from where she was currently flying, less she risked getting fried in mid-air. Of course, getting the hell away from one position didn't mean that the dragon was safe, not even by a long shot. Being airborne during a storm generally meant the chances of getting struck by lightning during a storm where higher than if Cera where to travel on foot. However, without any landmass being in sight, the only thing that she could do was to continue flying. Technically speaking swimming was an option, yet not a very feasible one at the moment. The waves would either drift her off course or take her beneath the ocean's surface. And while she could indeed hold her breath longer than any human, given the currents she would be facing, there was a good chance for her to drown. And dying wasn't very high on her priority list right now. The one thing currently being most tops on her list of things to do was to beat up her stupid little brother for getting her into this situation in the first place, right after finding a good spot to land and rest up, until the storm had passed. Apparently, she needed to do those things in reverse order, as she could not beat up her brother when she was dead. As such, she swung her neck left and right, desperately trying to find even a speck of land she could land on. However, as previously mentioned, finding her way around was considerably tricky, given that she could barely see where she was flying. So far her plan had been to just fly ahead until either she came across land or the skies cleared up and she could orient herself with the help of the stars. The problem was, thanks to the strong wind she couldn't be sure whether she was flying straight or in a circle. She had to adjust her angle and direction very often, less she risked getting swept up by the wind. Cera couldn't remember when had been the last time she had flown under such severe conditions. She was pretty sure this was the first time.

("I swear, when I get out of this, I'm gonna eat my brother's tail."), she silently swore to herself, adjusting her own tail to get a bit more altitude. She had gotten dangerously close to the ocean once again and only noticed thanks to a random lightning bolt in the distance. The following thunder was so loud, it could be compared to dynamite being detonated right next to her ear. She could feel the vibrations going straight through her entire body. It felt a little bit heavy on her stomach for some reason. At the same time, the rain intensified, making the raindrops feel like tiny daggers hitting on her scales. Luckily that was more of an annoyance than anything else. The real problem was the cold. Not only was the air around these parts colder than back at home, but the water also started to cool down her body considerably. If this kept up for another few hours, she wouldn't be able to move her body anymore. The result of that would be either death by drowning or worse hypothermia. None of those options were considerably appealing at the moment. Luckily for Cera, she had a way of warming up her own body at least a little bit. It was a bit tricky, but if she spat her flames just at the right angle, she could heat up one body part after another, giving her precious more hours to find land. Of course, doing this mid-flight was what made this endeavor so tricky, but it wasn't like she had much of choice. Turning her long neck around, Cera decided to hover in mid-air, while she carefully unleashed a weak stream of flames out of her mouth. She shot the fire a little bit too high, so she had to adjust her head a bit to get them properly flying over her body. She miscalculated the shot a small bit and accidentally hit her wings. It stung just a tiny bit, but only because her wings had been cold, to begin with. Her scales were capable of enduring much more.

Since her wings were continually flapping up and down, she decided only to let out short bursts of fire, just shooting whenever her wings were down. Once her back had considerably warmed up, she proceeded to do the same with her sides, as well as her underbelly. Her tail, however, would have to remain feeling like popsicle since it would take a lot of twisting and turning in order to reach that place.

However now that her internal body temperature was at a slightly higher level again, Cera felt more energetic than five minutes ago. With new vigor, she continued her flight, hoping to get out of this storm soon enough.

XXX

Eizen didn't even try to hide the sigh of relief he let out. Finally, the storm had passed, the Van Eltia came out of it more or less undamaged (some planks would need to be replaced in the near future), but once again his curse had struck and cost three crew members their lives. Of course, those three had known what they had been getting into, just like the rest of the Aifread Pirates. However, that didn't change the fact that the first mate was feeling guilty about the loss he was mainly responsible for. Yet there was no time to mourn for now. The crew needed to get back on course. Who knows how many days they've lost because of that storm? Eizen turned around and was about to look for Benwick when he saw the blonde man with the sylph jay on top his hat approaching the first mate.

"First mate, we got a problem," Benwick said with a frown.

"What is it?" Eizen asked with a frown, crossing his arms.

"Our compass, sir. It looks like it got thrown overboard during the storm," the blonde man informed the first mate.

"Damn it," the earth Malakhim cursed. "Without the compass, it will be impossible for us to navigate properly."

"I guess we have to rely on our luck to get around, huh?" Benwick half-joked, trying to lighten the mood somewhat.

"Luck, huh?" the so-called Reaper took out his coin and flipped it into the air. The gold coin flipped a couple of times until it landed in Eizen's palm. It showed an engraving of a hooded skull, similar to how the infamous Grimm Reaper was portrayed in mythology. He turned the coin around in his hand, revealing the image of a woman's face from the side. The first mate looked up towards his crewmate, putting his coin back into his jacket.

"We need to get a compass as soon as possible. That means we either steal one or we manage to find a port and buy a new one. Tell the Crow's Nest to keep their eyes peeled for any ships we might be able to assault. Also get some men to check up the ship one more time. The last thing we need is to sink because of a loose plank."

"Aye, aye, first mate." Benwick saluted and the sylphjay on top of him mimicked the human. The blonde pirate was about to issue the orders to the others when all of the sudden a shout came from the crow's nest.

"First mate! Land ho, starboard!"

Eizen and Benwick immediately turned around and looked over the railing and out in the vast ocean. However, none of the two men could see any land nearby.

"Where's the supposed land?!" Eizen called back up.

"It's a small island, just ahead!" The man in the crow's nest shouted back. "It's no bigger than a caravel! But there's a girl stranded on that island!"

"Say what?!" Eizen and Benwick exclaimed and tried to make out the island once again that their watch had spotted, but there was still nothing their eyes could make out. Having an idea, Benwick turned towards one of the nearby pirates, who happened to carry a monocular with him.

"Hey, can I have that thing for a second?" Benwick pointed at the instrument he was interested in.

"Eh… sure," the pirate replied and handed his superior over the monocular.

"Thanks," the blonde pirate nodded and immediately looked through it. Now being able to see further, he could quickly make out the small island the watch had made out. Actually, calling this little rock sticking out of the ocean an island was a bit much. It really was just a big rock with a little bit of sand sticking out of the blue sea. And indeed, his eye spotted a girl lying on that rock with her eyes closed. The girl lying on her back had slightly darker skin, red hair, wore a red tube top, black trousers and something was hanging from her neck. Benwick couldn't make out all the details, but if he had to guess, the girl looked around the age of 16, 18 at most.

"Yeah, I see her now too," Benwick gave the monocular back to the other pirate. "Not sure how she got there, didn't see a boat or anything."

"She might have fallen off her ship and managed to save herself. In any event, let's get her out of there. Hard starboard! We got a shipwrecked to rescue!"

As soon as the order was heard by the other pirates, the deck fell into a state of controlled chaos. Quickly the Aifread Pirates went onto their positions, unfurled the sails and steered the ship in the right direction. One of the rowboats was made ready to approach the quote, unquote "island", since no one wanted to risk the Van Eltia accidentally run aground or worse hit a riff. Like a well-oiled machine, the pirates worked as if they were getting ready to rescue one of their own. Given the relatively short distance, it didn't take long for the rock to come into view to the naked eye of the sailors. After a couple of more minutes, the ship was close enough so that everyone on board could see someone lying on the rock. It was at that point that Eizen ordered the ship to sail in a circle around the small isle, since the bottom of the ocean turned out to be too deep for the anchor to be dropped anywhere, but very close to the rock. At the same time, two pirates entered the previously prepared rowboat and made their way towards the rock. It turned out the sea wasn't really shallow until you were like two feet away from the rock. The pirates guessed from under the surface the rock must have looked like one tall mountain.

When the pirates came up close to the girl, they noticed that she had a flower attached to her shirt, a blue dragon-shaped pendant hung from her neck, two golden bracelets were around each of her wrists and a small, brown bag hanging from her hips. Her black shoes looked like they were in pretty good condition and only a little wet.

"She must've dropped off a merchant ship," one of the pirates guessed as he and his "colleague" stepped onto the isle and checked up on the girl. "Might even belong to a minor noble family."

The second pirate put his ear close to her mouth and listened in for a couple of seconds. "Still breathing," the second pirate told the first one. He put his hand on her forehead, checking for a potential fever.

"Feels cold. Not sure if this is a good or a bad sign. Definitely no fever, though."

"The fever might still come. Let's get her back to the Van Eltia," the first pirate suggested.

"Aye."

Carefully the two pirates picked up the girl and put her into the rowboat. They couldn't exactly put her into a comfortable position, so they curled her up into a ball, placed the redhead in front of their feet and made their way back to the Van Eltia. Needless to say, the crew was quite curious about the girl they just picked up. Every crewmember on deck looked over to where the redhead was being carried by the pirates who picked her up. Eizen approached the two members who just came back to the ship. The Malakhim took a look at the girl, before addressing the pirates carrying the girl.

"Any complications?"

"None, first mate. The girl looks fine, all things considered. I think she's just sleeping."

As if reacting to the pirate's words, the girl subconsciously snuggled up deeper into the man's chest, mumbling something incomprehensible. The pirates around let out chuckles at the display, before Eizen pointed towards a door leading into the inside of the ship. "Get her into my cabin. She's probably going to need some rest, especially if she dropped off her ship during the storm yesterday."

"Aye, first mate."

As the pirate carried the girl into Eizen's cabin, the girl stirred in her sleep, her face scrunching up a little bit. The pirate guessed he could probably wake her up if he wanted, but the girl probably needed her rest. As such, once he was inside the cabin, he tucked the redhead in under Eizen's blankets. He was about to leave the girl alone, when he noticed that the girl had opened her eyes, revealing her eye color to be red. This was a little bit of an unusual eye color. The pirate was taken a little aback and rubbed his own eyes, thinking he might have looked wrong. When his sight was free again, the girl had her eyes closed, her chest rising and falling under the blankets.

"Must be the light…" the pirate mused, as he walked out of the room. If he had stayed a little bit longer, he would have noticed that the girl had opened her eyes for a second time and was looking around the room. Her eyes, however, were unfocused and didn't fixate on anything. Her irises changed from a round shape to that of a slit serpentine for a couple of seconds, before returning to normal.

"Weird dream…" Cera mumbled, turning around in what she presumed to be her bed, while allowing the gentle shaking of the ship to rock her back to sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

Eizen frowned, as he was studying the maps laid out in front of him. The first mate of the Aifread Pirates was currently sitting in the biggest part of the ship, a huge dining room where usually the captain and the highest ranking crew members would dine, drink and at times have talks together. Currently, the Earth-Malakhim was alone in the room, his only real companion being a sylphjay that had decided to stay on the inside, where it was warmer, rather than flying outside. The bird was doing much, mostly sitting in the corner and preening its own feathers.

Eizen let out a grunt, taking his gaze off the map and looking outside through the huge windows on the back of the ship. Even though the Pirates had lost their compass, he made a mental note to get a few spares, he could still say at least the rough direction they were sailing in. Around midday, the sun was in the south position of the sky and the Van Eltia was sailing with her front side pointed towards the sun, ergo they were currently going south. At least the rough direction, Eizen mentally corrected. Using the sun as a way to determine in which direction you're really going is a last-ditch maneuver, when on the open sea. Because the planet was always moving around the sun, no one could really tell whether they were going southeast, southwest or anything in between. Even worse, without any landmarks (islands, rock formations and so on) to go on, he couldn't even tell where they currently were positioned. Evidently, the storm had thrown the ship around a lot, but they still should be somewhat near Hellawes. After all, that had been their new destination, before the storm hit them anyway. His hope was by going south, they would eventually come close to the mainland, after which it would be easier for the pirates to determine their position and get around.

Focusing his eyes once again on the maps in front of him, Eizen fell in deep thought. Thanks to the sea gate the Abbey erected the places the pirates could sail towards were limited, to say the least. Hellawes was one of those places, but getting to the island without a compass was difficult, if not downright suicidal. The Aifread Pirates only had so many supplies. With no way to tell where the pirates even remotely were, their best bet was to get to the mainland. The question now was where the best place to land would be. Anywhere wasn't really an option, less they risked getting ambushed by the Abbey or worse, landed in an area infested with daemons. Eizen was a capable fighter, but he was alone and could only handle so much at once.

"Let's see…" Eizen muttered to himself. "We could land here," he touched the point of the map he was thinking about with his finger "but there tend to be a lot of patrol ships. On the other hand, if we go here" again, he pointed with his finger "we risk damaging the ship because of all of these reefs. A lot of daemons have been sighted in this area as of late, so that's a no-go from the start. Over here aren't many spots to anchor, but the Abbey isn't as active-"

"What the hell?!"

Eizen found himself interrupted in his musings when he heard a feminine shout coming from the door that led directly to his quarters. He couldn't help but chuckle a little bit at the distress he heard coming from the girl's voice.

"Looks like our guest is awake," the first mate said to himself, rising from his seat. He casually strolled over to the door and when in front of it, he raised his right hand and knocked three times. There wasn't an immediate answer, in fact, there was no answer at all. Eizen guessed that the girl was still in shock from waking up in a new place and possibly traumatized by her experience with the storm. As such, he opened the door after an adequate amount of time had passed and walked into his own room.

He found the girl standing right next to his bunk, the blankets lying discarded on the ground. The girl's red eyes, an unusual color, Eizen mentally noted, were staring in surprise and weariness at the Earth-Malakhim. Her hands were balled into fists and she had them already halfway in the air as if she was ready to take a battle stance. Her legs were already in the appropriate position for that.

"Easy there," Eizen spoke calmly. "We found you shored up on a rock in the middle of the ocean and thought you might want some help."

The girl narrowed her eyes at the pirate. "Rock…? Ocean…?" she said just loud enough for the first mate to hear.

"That's right," he nodded calmly. "Don't you remember the storm yesterday?" he asked, silently wondering if the girl had hit her head somewhere. To the relief of the Malakhim, the girl lowered her arms at least a little bit, her expression turning into one of confusion.

"Storm…?" she wondered. "I was in a storm?" And then all of a sudden her eyes widened. "That's right, now I remember!" she exclaimed. "My brother messed again and then all of the sudden I was…" The girl's voice trailed off, as she looked down at her feet and putting her hand on her forehead.

Eizen raised an eyebrow, wondering just what her brother had messed up exactly, though he didn't spend too much thinking about that, as the girl in front of him looked a little lost.

"Are you okay?" the first mate asked. "Do you maybe need some time alone?"

The girl's gaze shot up in surprise as if she had forgotten for a moment that she wasn't alone in the room. After her brain processed the words spoken to her, she vehemently shook her head, causing her short hair to fly around wildly.

"No, no! Not really," the girl denied, hugging herself with her arms. "Just… getting my thoughts together, y'know? And- whoa!" The girl suddenly let out a shout, as she lost her balance on her feet. She waved wildly with her arms and stumbled a little bit until she managed to support herself on a nearby wall.

"Why the fuck is the ground moving?" she exclaimed, much to Eizen's amusement.

"Forgotten? You're on a ship," he explained with a smirk. "You're on board the Van Eltia, captain Aifread's ship."

The girl, who had been struggling to stand without the need to support herself on the wall, froze up. Her legs still wobbled a little bit, but the distress on her face had disappeared as quickly as it came and was now replaced with a deep frown. "Aifread… Aifread… where have I heard that name before?"

Eizen wasn't even remotely surprised that the girl had heard of his captain. Aifread was arguably the most infamous pirate in these parts of the sea. Even people who lived deep in the mainland had heard the stories of Aifread and his crew.

"Wait a second…" the girl suddenly said, looking at her surroundings. For some reason, she showed a particular interest in Eizen's commode. "That's retro…" she commented and looked around more. There wasn't much in the first mate's room. The only things noteworthy were a shelf filled with books on various topics, a framed, slightly faded picture of the Van Eltia and a bottle of spirits standing on his nightstand. When she was done with her observations, the girl looked back at Eizen, who was waiting patiently for the girl to say anything.

"I'm on Aifread's ship. As in the pirate Aifread, correct?"

Eizen nodded, already guessing what her next reaction would be that of fear and panic. After all, pirates didn't have a bad reputation for nothing. He could already imagine that it would take a lot of convincing to explain to the girl that she wasn't in any danger. The crew would probably have to lock her away for the remainder of her stay, so that she wouldn't endanger herself and/or the crew.

However as it turned out, Eizen was wrong with how the girl would react to this situation. Her expression once again became that of a thoughtful one and she put the palm of her hand on her forehead. "Wasn't the Van Eltia in one of the tales…?" she wondered, confusing Eizen a little bit with her wording. "Yes," the girl nodded to herself. "It was in Eternia. But it looked different…"

Eizen found himself getting a little impatient with the girl, but still, he allowed her to ramble on. Even if the girl had said she was ok, he didn't really believe her. More he thought she did not realize that she needed some alone time to get to terms with everything. He thought about offering her again to let her alone for a bit, but before he could do that, the redhead spoke to him again.

"Hey, what's your name? Are you Aifread by any chance?" she asked, her voice straight.

Usually, Eizen would have been amused by that assumption, but not this time. The way the girl spoke, in this solemn tone, it wasn't how he expected this conversation to go. Still, he kept a straight face and answered her question.

"No, I'm Eizen. I'm the first mate of this ship," he introduced himself.

And once again, the girl's expression did a 180 flip. She now sported a look of surprise and… sorrow? Eizen needed to double check, but yes. There was clearly a hint of sadness in her eyes. Living for as long as he did, he became pretty adequate in reading other people's faces.

"Are you…" the red-haired girl swallowed. "Are you…Edna's sister?"

Now it was the pirate's turn to be surprised. "You know my sister?" he asked with a raised eyebrow, his voice filled with curiosity. If this girl had met Edna and somehow managed to befriend with the younger Malak, then their meeting was one hell of a coincidence. Although usually, Edna didn't talk much about her personal life to strangers. It was pretty rare for her to talk to strangers in the first place.

The redhead in front of him fell back on his bunk. At first, the pirate thought the girl had lost her footing again, but that changed when she gave him that weird smile. It was a mixture of nervousness, anticipation and joy, at least Eizen got those vibes from the girl in front of him.

"Holy fuck." A chortled laugh escaped her mouth. "I suddenly have the wish to hug my little brother, until he suffocates to death, after which I'm going to stuff his body and place it on display in front of my house. Is that weird?" Her question was directed at the first mate, who wasn't sure how to react to her sudden personality shift. This girl was a confusing human, to say the least, and by the time Eizen had gathered his thoughts, the girl had started laughing at his dumbfounded expression.

"Kidding, kidding," she said between chortles. Once she calmed down, she jumped off the bed, landed on her feet, but needed to stretch out her arms, since the ship was still moving to the waves. "Whoa. Right, forgot. This is ship. Ship is move~y and stuff. Anyways!"

The girl clapped her hands together and gave Eizen one big smile. "I'm Cera! And before anything else…" the girl now dubbed Cera started rummaging through her brown bag until she took out a notepad and a ballpoint pen.

"Can I have your autograph?" she almost squealed in a high pitched tone.

Eizen took the notepad and the pen in each of his hands and examined the items with great interest. Somehow, someone had managed to cut the individual papers perfectly to the same size and attached them together on some kind of light metal in the shape of a spring. The first paper was colored red and had in bolt, white letters CES written on it. The first paper also felt completely different from the rest. It was smoother and reflected the light a little. At the end of the stacked up papers was some kind of brown, hard paper that Eizen had no idea what to call it. As for the papers themselves, they were white, but someone had drawn grey vertical and horizontal lines on each of them, resulting in perfectly small squares, each having the same height and width.

Then there was the stick thing that ended in a similar fashion as a writing feather, only the tip was rounder. The small stick itself was white, with just the back tip being colored blue. The Malakhim guessed this was a writing utensil, but how was he supposed to write without any ink? Unknowingly he accidentally had pressed the "stick" on the paper and when he raised the stick, he found a small blue dot on the space he accidentally pressed against. Eizen stared for a couple of seconds at the spot, before he attempted to write his name. To his surprise, it went way more smoothly than with any feather he had ever used. He also realized that all of those squares were helping him write in a straight line.

("The ink must be stored somewhere on the inside. But how does it get out?") Eizen wondered to himself. The first mate was taken off guard, when Cera out of nowhere snatched the notepad and roller pen away, putting both away into her small back.

"Ehh!" The redhead squealed, making a happy dance by moving her upper body left and right. "This is awesome! Awesome~, awesome~, awesome~, awesome~!" the girl sang, causing Eizen to look at her cautiously. He wasn't sure if this girl was just quirky or maybe a little mad.

"Right… how about we sit down somewhere more comfortable?"

XXX

Eizen led Cera into the dining hall, where the maps were still spread across the dining table. The first mate motioned the guest to take a seat on the table. Cera had her eyes on the expensive red carpet and as a result, slammed her body against one of the chairs. The girl grumbled, while Eizen snorted and took his former seat. Cera sat down to his right and looked down at the maps curiously.

"Wow," she said, admiring the custom artwork of a sea serpent on one of the maps.

"Do you need anything?" Eizen asked, getting the redhead's attention. "Food? Some water, maybe?"

"Eh… no thanks. I'm fine," Cera replied.

"Are you sure?" the first mate inquired. "You must have been out in the cold and surrounded by sea water for at least a couple of hours," the blonde argued. "I am surprised you're able to hold a conversation. Especially with a pirate."

"What's my health got to do with you being a pirate?" the redhead asked, tilting her head.

"I don't know." Eizen crossed his hands on the table. "Shouldn't you be scared or at least anxious? You are on a pirate ship, after all, one that has a reputation for even taking on the Abbey."

"The Abbey?" Cera repeated.

"That's right," Eizen confirmed. "Even the exorcists will think twice before challenging us. But enough about that. First and foremost I want to know if you're feeling okay."

"Uh…" Cera shook her head, getting her thoughts sorted out. "Yeah. Why'd you asked? I mean… you're a pirate and all that stick. Shouldn't you be trying to rape me or something? Not that I'm complaining, though I would be too much for you to handle anyways," the girl finished with a smirk.

Eizen shook his head, though an amused smile appeared on his face. "You're either brave or just a foolish girl that has yet to see the world. I think I'll go with the latter for now."

"Hey…!" Cera mock complained putting her arms behind her head. "Seriously though, thanks for getting me off that rock. Never thought I'd be able to meet the infamous captain Aifread in person. This is awesome!" she shouted, pumping a fist into the air.

Eizen did his best to hide his school and luckily the girl was too distracted at that very moment to notice that. He didn't exactly want to explain to a complete stranger that their captain was missing without at least getting some information about the girl.

"Well, if you're in such a good mood, I guess we can go on."

"Good mood is putting it mildly. You don't know the excitement I'm currently suppressing."

The Malakhim once again shook his head. "Anyway, you mentioned my sister earlier. I guess you must have met her then."

"Er…" And suddenly Cera found herself at a loss for words. Technically speaking she knew Eizen's sister. However, that didn't mean that the redhead had personally met the little Seraphim. Yet Cera was all too aware that trying to explain video games would probably end up with her getting into deep trouble. And even though she was pretty sure she could take on a Seraphim or Malakhim as they were called in Berseria, she was even more aware of the strength that dragon Eizen had displayed back in Zestiria. So she figured it was best to bluff her way out of this.

"Yeah, met the little girl. Blonde, green eyes, wears a white dress and for some reason uses an umbrella as a weapon. How does that work, anyway?"

Eizen let out a chuckle.

"That's not to mention the comments she made. 'Hooray, another empty victory.'" Cera made her best Edna impression, which caused the first mate of the Aifread Pirates to laugh out loud.

"That's Edna, alright. You two must be getting along."

"Eh… somewhat," Cera shrugged, looking to the side. "Been a while since I've seen her though…" ("Zestiria was a good game, better than some people give it credit for, but a lot of other Tales games were better. Maybe I'll pick up that game after I'm done with Berseria. And after I get home too.")

"I see…" Eizen nodded. "Good to hear she's doing okay."

"Y-yeah."

"Well, having a chat like this is nice and all, but let's get down to business, shall we?"

Cera became a little nervous at those words. She was used to a lot of weird stuff from back home and as such it was relatively easy for her to keep her composure at the moment. However, she wasn't so sure if she could keep it up if she were bombarded with questions the whole time. Besides, her inner fangirl was currently headbanging against the mental cage she had set-up.

"So, how did you end up on that island?" Eizen asked.

"Oh...that… yeah," Cera crossed her arms and looked to the side uncomfortably. "The storm…" She closed her eyes, took in a deep breath and let it out again. "I… dropped off the ship… I was on."

The Malak nodded, though he found it odd as to how the girl had been stuttering. Maybe the experience had shaken her more up than she let on?"

"I was goddamn lucky to find that rock," she continued. "Though I have no idea where the ship I was on disappeared to. They probably all think I am dead."

"I'm sorry to hear that." Eizen cleared his throat. "Well, if you tell me where you were initially headed, maybe I can arrange something off-" But that was as far as Eizen got with his offer. The first mate found himself interrupted mid-sentence, because of the door getting slammed open and one of the pirates standing under the frame.

"First mate! We're under attack!"

"What?!"

Eizen immediately threw his chair away and ran out of the room. The pirate, who gave Eizen the warning, had already gone ahead. Curious and anxious as to what was happening, Cera followed the two men outside. Usually, the hidden dragon would have marveled at the beauty that was the Van Eltia, but the redhead found herself ever so slightly distracted by the cannonballs impacting in front of the ship, sending torrents of water into the air! The ship shook profoundly, various shouts could be heard as the crew ran back and forth on deck, trying to organize a solid defense. Cera herself was crouched down, almost falling over. But even in her position, she could make out the ship that was attacking the Van Eltia. It looked a lot like the ship from Berseria with which Velvet, Rokurou and Magilou escaped the prison island. The dragon wanted to squeal in joy but never came to it, since another volley of cannonballs barely missed the Van Eltia. This time she did fell over from the shaking.

"Ow…" she groaned, trying to get up as quickly as possible. "Right, been awhile since I have hunted anything. I always wondered how humans actually taste. Let's see… medium or extra crispy?"


	3. Chapter 3

Death was nothing new to Cera. It was only natural for someone like her who occasionally hunted down the one or other unfortunate animal with "only" what her body came equipped with. However, this would be the very first time she would have to kill a human. The thought alone caused an excited grin to sneak itself onto her face.

Eizen in the meantime was shouting orders to his fellow pirates. "Man the cannons! Don't just stand there, fire back! Benwick! Get us close to the ship! Everyone who is not on cannon duty, prepare to enter!"

Cera watched as the pirates all fulfilled Eizen's orders, while at the same time another salvo of cannonballs was fired from the enemy ship. The girl had to resist the urge to jump out of the way, even though she could see that the balls would miss their mark again. The cannons, however, were way louder than any movie she had ever seen, causing them to ring for a little bit. The redhead shook the ringing off, as she had to asses the situation as quickly as possible.

The enemy ship was getting closer to the Van Eltia and she could see the sailors loading their cannons with more iron balls and some others were even preparing their bows and arrows. The pirates were doing roughly the same thing, with some cannons already returning fire. Cera cringed when her oversensitive ears registered the mini-explosions happening inside the metal barrels. The ringing inside of her ears was even louder than before, as such she didn't hear one of the crewmates approaching her. She only noticed the man right next to her, when he put a hand on her shoulder.

Cera turned her head and found a pirate wearing only some loose, white trousers and carrying a sword in his right hand. "Hey, you better go under deck." The redhead somehow managed to hear the man, albeit barely. "Things are about to get rough here."

"Eh…" Cera wanted to talk back to the man but was distracted by her ears still complaining to her brain about being exposed to such loud noises. In this time the pirate decided to take the girl's arm and drag her to the ship's interior, as he thought she was in a state of shock. At least that was his plan. He certainly wasn't expecting Cera's inhuman strength. Due to being grabbed out of nowhere, her arm jerked upwards. The pirate found himself being pulled back so hard his feet left the ground for one second before his ass hit the ground.

"Wha-?! OW! What was that?" he asked and tried to get back on his feet, only to fall again, as Cera broke her arm free of the man's grip and returned her attention to the ongoing battle. Although to be honest, there wasn't much to see. The ships were getting closer to each other by the second, yet for some reason, neither party managed to get a solid hit with their cannons. Cera was far from being an expert on navy combat, but she thought that each ship should at least have some holes in their respective hulls. On hindsight, this was actually a good thing, as it meant that the ship she was currently on, wasn't about to hit the bottom of the ocean in the next ten or so minutes.

The disguised dragon had yet to entirely make up her mind as to how she should help the pirates, when in a way that decision was taken out of her claws. Her vision had been currently focused on the deck of the Van Eltia, where she saw Eizen ordering around the crew. She was thinking about how she could convince the first mate to let her fight alongside him when all of a sudden there were two flashes of light on deck. Before Cera's brain could even register what was going on, she heard the men on deck scream, which was followed by the all too recognizable sound of multiple bodies hitting the surface of the ocean.

"Malakhim!" Eizen shouted. "Get away!" He made a waving gesture with his arm. Cera was pretty confused as to what was actually going on, that is until her gaze fell onto the two newcomers on deck. They looked very similar to the enemies she faced in Tales of Berseria, specifically when she fought the boss of the Prison Island. He had two similar looking dudes fighting for him, attacking Velvet with basic magic attacks. The dudes wore some weird robes with silly hats and masks. They reminded the dragon a lot about how church people were depicted in video games. The ones here wore green variations of those clothes.

The pirates cleared a small area on deck reasonably quickly, all the while Eizen promptly engaged the intruders in close combat. The first Malakh raised his staff and tried to block the incoming fist. It didn't work out as planned, as Eizen directly smashed through the weapon and hit the face of his opponent. Cera was sure she heard something break before the Malakhim hit the deck.

Oc course the second Malakhim wasn't just standing idly there. He had been charging up a spell this entire time and was now "firing" a large gust of wind at the first mate. He however somehow saw the attack coming and performed a dodge roll. This in return had the unfortunate effect of a pirate, busy operating one of the canons, being hit and send to the ocean along with his cannon.

"You'll pay for that," Eizen swore and charged towards his fellow Malakhim. The blonde, however, was forced to stop mid-charge and jump out of the way, as another blast was fired at him. As soon as he recovered, he found himself under attack again! And again! Eizen soon realized that his Malakh opponent was deliberately not charging up his spells fully. He was shooting them in rapid-fire fashion, which prevented Eizen from counterattacking. The earth Malak couldn't use most of his own artes as there was no earth around him. Plus his own few wind artes wouldn't be effective against his opponent.

Eizen frowned, as he mentally went over his arte-list, trying to think of a quick spell that he could cast, which would give him the moment he needed to pummel his opponent into submission. He was about ready to jump out of the way once more when something unexpected happened. The girl, who the pirates had picked up from the small island, had jumped down on deck and landed behind the opposing Malakh. Before any of the two Malakhim could fully register what was going on, Cera had grabbed the enemy Malak's neck and slammed him face first onto the Van Eltia's deck. The wind Malakhim didn't even get the time to recover. The disguised dragon raised her foot and slammed it directly on the back of the Malakhim's neck. Eizen's eyes widened when he heard the sound of bones snapping.

"What the hell?" he muttered, watching slightly disturbed as the girl grinned down at the fallen enemy. Cera looked up, still grinning, and tilted her head upon seeing Eizen's expression.

"What? Never seen a dead body before?" she asked in a humorous tone.

Eizen was about to answer, but couldn't, because the entire ship began shaking all of a sudden. One of the cannonballs had barely missed the pirate ship, but it had come close enough to cause the whole ship to shake. Once Eizen and Cera regained their footing, they saw that the abbey ship had gotten close, almost close enough to be entered. Sadly that also meant that the abbey could board their craft as well, which was precisely what they were planning.

Eizen cursed as he saw just how many people of his own crew had been injured by the stray blasts he had been dodging all this time. He could only hope that not more had fallen into the sea during the fight, but given that they were dealing with his luck the opposite was probably the case.

"Don't worry first mate," one of the pirate's who noticed his worried expression gave the Malak a reassuring look. "It's just a few bruises, nothing too serious."

"If you say so…" Eizen replied reluctantly. "Get ready. It looks like they're about to board our ship. Let's give them a warm welcome."

The pirates cheered, raising their many sabers into the air. Cera raised an eyebrow at their behavior, as to her count they had lost at least three comrades. She didn't have much time to think about their behavior though, as the enemy had come close enough to shoot their arrows at the pirates. The humans and Eizen immediately ducked and by some miracle, none of them got hit. Cera was not so lucky. Her right eye twitched when the sharpened rocks attached to sticks bounced off her exposed stomach, as well as the rest of her body. Her shirt and trousers got damaged from the volley of arrows, getting a few holes here and there. The redhead frowned, inspecting her clothes for a couple of seconds.

"H-how…?!"

Looking to the side, the dragon lady found out that a few of the pirates, who were still in crouching position, staring at her, Eizen being one of them. Apparently, they had witnessed her body withstanding the enemy attack without as much as a scratch being left behind. She gave the men watching her a cocky smile, before casually walking towards the railing. Another volley of arrows rained down on the deck, yet somehow all of them missed the disguised dragon.

When she reached her destination, her red eyes spotted the sailors on the abbey ship getting ready to enter the pirate ship. Feeling exceedingly cocky, Cera waved with her hand towards the sailor, earning her more than a few confused looks from crews of both vessels. They were even more confused when the mostly unknown girl began inhaling a tremendous amount of air. Naturally, the humans fully expected for the air to come back out of her mouth, maybe a little bit warmer than before. They certainly weren't expecting for a stream of fire to go out of her mouth, on which quickly reached the enemy ship and set the sails on fire. One could hear people screaming in pain, as they were being baked alive.

The pirates stared in horror, as Cera closed her mouth and watched with glee as the humans ran around on deck like chickens who had lost their heads. Some of them had the foresight to jump into the ocean, where their skulls were crushed by one or the other ship hitting their heads. And since the enemy ship was mostly made out of wood, it didn't take long for said wood to also catch fire, even though the ocean air and water had moisturized it.

"I fell into a burnin' ring of fire~

I went down, down, down~

And the flames went higher~

And it burns, burns, burns~

The ring of fire~ the ring of fire~."

Cera happily sang the lyrics, bobbing her head left and right while watching the humans on the abbey ship desperately trying to get the fire under control. Eizen managed to find his composure first and approached the girl standing on the railing.

"You're a daemon," he said in an as a matter of fact tone, stopping just behind the girl. The redhead turned around and leaned her back against the railing. She gave Eizen an unamused look, before speaking.

"Come on, man. If I'm really a daemon, you'd have felt the malevolence coming out of me the moment I was on board of this ship," she stated in the same matter of fact tone.

"You know about malevolence?!" Eizen asked, not even bothering to hide his shock.

"Yup," Cera leaned her head against her fist. "It's called daemonblight for some reason, right? I don't get it. I mean when I saw it in action, it clearly looked like malevolence to me. Or is daemonblight some kind of new fancy term for malevolence?"

Eizen gave the girl they rescued a hard look. It was true that he couldn't sense any malevolence coming out of her, not even the slightest speck, which in of itself was unusual. Yet at the same time, he could also tell that she was no Malakhim, he would have felt that too. Going by process of elimination, this girl had to be human. But if that was the case, how was it that she was capable of using a fire arte without the help of a Malakhim or Daemon for that matter?

"First mate," Benwick spoke up, getting Eizen's attention. The man with the bird nesting inside of his hair looked like he had yet to get over his own shock. "What are your orders?" The underling nodded towards Cera, indicating he wanted to know what they were supposed to do with the girl, who had just shown that she might be a daemon. However, the first mate had his attention on something else, namely the burning ship behind the girl.

"Get the survivors out of the water," Eizen told the pirates, causing Cera to raise an eyebrow. "We'll drop them off the next time we hit land."

"Aye, aye!" the pirates shouted and went to work. At least that was their plan. They certainly didn't expect an exorcist to jump from the burning ship to the pirate ship and blast the pirates away, who were about to prepare the lifeboats. At least half of those pirates hit their head on the railing and blacked out.

Eizen and Cera were taken aback by the female exorcist drawing her blade and pointing it at the first mate.

"You will pay for what you did, lowly pirates!" She practically spat the last sword and a light came out of her body and landed right next to her. The light turned into a human-like being, a Malakhim in blue uniform, indicating his central element to be water.

Without any warning the woman charged directly at Eizen, her sword ready to cut the pirate in two halves. Said pirate jumped out of the way and counterattacked with his fist. The woman, however, rolled out of the way at the last possible moment and was very quickly up on her feet. In the few seconds it took for this to play out, the Malak had successfully charged a spell and shot a torrent of water at Cera. The girl didn't even think she was part of this fight and as such was not prepared for the attack.

The torrent was strong enough to push the girl off the ship. Her legs hit the railing and she was flipped over. Screaming in surprise, the girl managed to catch herself on the same railing she had been previously flipped over and easily got herself back on the ship.

Eizen and the exorcist were trading blows with each other. Well, not really, Eizen was dodging the exorcist's swings, while she in return blocked the incoming fists with her sword. The water Malak, thinking he had gotten rid of Cera, was already preparing another spell, clearly aiming it at Eizen.

"Hey, asshole!" Cera shouted, successfully getting the attention of the Malakhim. "Payback time!" she shouted and raised her left hand. A handball-sized globe of electricity appeared in her palm, with the occasional spark flying out of it. Unlike the Malakhim, Cera didn't need to charge up her spell for a couple of seconds. The ball of electricity flew towards the Malakhim almost as soon as it had appeared in Cera's hand.

The Malak couldn't dodge and screamed in pain as electricity surged throughout his entire body. Some sparks even appeared outside his body. Cera used this opportunity to run up to her opponent and due to the lack of a weapon, she merely mimicked Eizen and punched the Malak in the guts. She flinched a little, as the electricity moved over to her body, but that was about it.

The Malak gasped for air and fell to his knees. Cera followed up with a solid kick to the face, shattering the mask the male water Malak had been wearing. Some of the shards buried itself in the face of the dragon's opponent. However, despite the pain, the Malak somehow managed to suppress the pain and roll out of the way. He pushed himself off the ground and was quickly on his feet again. The man decided to change tactics, foregoing spells in favor of close combat. He raised his staff and swung it directly onto the girl's head. She in return didn't even attempt to dodge, as the thing hit her head with full force. The result was rather hilarious.

Somehow the Malakhim managed to hit Cera's head with such a force that it broke the staff in half. The half that wasn't in the Malak's hands flew all the way over to where Eizen was fighting the exorcist. The projectile hit the side of the female exorcist's head, causing the woman to stagger in her movements. Eizen used this unexpected opportunity to unleash a combination of punches onto the woman he was facing. She didn't even get to scream, so quick were his attacks.

Cera in the meantime was busy looking unimpressed at the Malakhim. She grabbed the Malakhim's neck and held him up into the air, Darth Vader style. The human-looking being in her grip desperately tried to free himself, even going so far as kicking Cera in the gut. However, it was all the vain, as the disguised dragon could only let out a sigh at the disappointment this "fight" had turned out to be.

"I so hope the daemons over here put up a better fight than you guys." With that being said, she increased the pressure her fingers were exerting on the Malakhim until the bones inside of his neck couldn't take it anymore and snapped.

"Two neck snaps in a row. Do I get an achievement if I do fifty?" Cera asked, looking into the top right corner of her vision.


End file.
